Follow us on Our Journey To Smile ! Join us to say #Enough!

Borderfree Afghan Street Kids School

Child Right Netherlands ( http://www.childright.nl/ ) had sponsored the street kids pilot program

in 2013 and 2014 ( posts on the pilot program at the end of this page )

Borderfree Afghan Street Kids School

Mission: To share learning skills with 100 Afghan street kids on understanding language, nature, humanity, and life, and to be students and practitioners of nonviolence.

The school’s curriculum is designed not only to enable the street kids to become literate, but, more importantly, to nurture understanding, critical thinking, and compassion for service to the earth and the human family. The students will learn about global warming, socioeconomic inequalities, and militarism with its violence and wars.

There are an estimated 60,000 Afghan children who work in the streets of Kabul to supplement their families’ incomes. The militarized economic and educational systems are failing to nurture this new Afghan generation’s yearning to build a better world.

Zekerullah ( a former street kid ) leads street kids walk Feb 2015. The children asked for a school for 100 street kids.

A government official from the Afghan Ministry of Education had said in an informal radion interview after the Street Kids Protest Walk that the government did not have the resources to build such a school. So, Zekerullah (pictured above), once a street kid himself, and a team of Afghan Peace Volunteers have worked to fulfill the street kids’ dream by establishing the Borderfree Street Kids School for 100 Afghan street kids at the Borderfree Nonviolence Community Centre in Kabul. Voices for Creative Nonviolence U.S. has been raising generous support for the School.

The survey and enrolment of the 100 street kids were done in March 2015, before the school year started in spring. Volunteer teachers worked in two survey teams to visit the 80 street kids that participated in the street kids walk in February, as well as other street kids who had heard about the program and had wanted to be included in the program.

During the home visits, the following items were surveyed:

House – rented or owned by the street kids’ family

Number of family members

Occupation of father and mother

Number of breadwinners in the household

Conditions for enrolment:

Financially neediest families based on above survey

Not in any political group or in any criminal gangs

By the 23rd of May 2015, 80 street kids had been enrolled. From April 2016, the school enrolled 100 street kids from different ethnic groups.

The street kids come to the Borderfree Afghan Street Kids School every Friday. They attend classes in Dari and Math literacy, nonviolence and tailoring. The kids are divided into 5 classes (three classes in the morning and two in the afternoon ) based on an evaluation that gauged their literacy before the start of the Afghan New Year.

For the rest of the week, the street kids are encouraged to go to government schools. Government schools provide a half day of formal education. Many of the kids work in the streets all day because their families desperately need them to earn money to help put bread, rice, and other basic foods on the table. Working all day deprives the children of the chance to go to the government schools. By providing monthly gifts of rice and oil to their families, the Afghan Peace Volunteers share resources for the street kids’ basic human needs, making it easier for the kids to work for only half a day and attend government schools for the other half of the day.

Estimated budget of Borderfree Street Kids School for year 21st March 2016 to 21st March 2017

It costs USD 430 to put one street kid through the street kids school for one year.

Current enrolment ( accurate as of April 2016 ) of 100 children costs USD 43,000

Please note that 92% of the cost per kid is spent for the monthly sack of rice and bottle of oil that each street kid gets.

Inam, standing in a newly-constructed shop space, with his blue plastic jerry-can of boot-polishing tools and a pair of sandals for his customers to wear while he polishes their boots

This document is prepared with the help of the Afghan Peace Volunteers in the Borderfree Afghan Street Kids Team at the Borderfree Nonviolence Community Centre in Kabul, Afghanistan (http://ourjourneytosmile.com ). Those interested to support the project can write to borderfree@mail2world.com . Donations will be directed to Voices for Creative Nonviolence U.S. and UK, who are partners in this project.

Some of the street kids that have been enrolled in the school ( May 2015 ) :

There are an estimated 60,000 Afghan children who work in the streets of Kabul to help supplement their family’s income.

Najib was a 12-year-old Afghan orphan who collected trash in the streets of Quetta, Pakistan, where he befriended Dr Hakim. Once, Dr Hakim had invited Najib and his grandmother to share some mangoes. When Hakim asked Najib to smile for a photo, Najib’s grandmother asked angrily,”Why are you asking Najib to smile? He has no reason to smile at all.”

Child Right ( Netherlands ) was funding the street kid program. US$398 was spent on warm clothing for the 21 street kids in the winter of 2013 and US$390 was spent monthly on providing oil and rice for the families of the children.

Below were the photos from 2013

Our street kids Naseem, Hazrat, Kahar and Gul Jumma

remembering their fellow street kid killed in a suicide bombing attack in Kabul. December 2013

At the door of the yard where Habib’s family rents a corer for his tarpaulin home

Habib in his all-in-one-room tarpaulin home

On 9th of Feb 2014, the Afghan Peace Volunteers organized a lunch meal for the 21 street kids. Two of our female Afghan Peace Volunteers, Shakira and Sakina, cooked Qabuli Rice, a favourite dish among Afghans. There was ample fruit to go around too

our two cook

the rice pot

the square ‘table’

sharing a meal together

the street kids say no to all forms of violence

The street kids program is ongoing, with the latest rice and oil distribution done on 23rd Feb 2014

Rohullah burns wild rue in a metal can. He swings the metal can to disperse the smoke and scent from the burning rue at passersby, or at drivers in passing vehicles. The smoke and scent is said to chase away ‘evil spirits’ and for that, some people would give Rohullah a few Afghanis ( Afghan currency ).

“I don’t like this work of burning rue to earn a few Afghanis. I like ducks.”

Rohullah’s work on the streets

Gul Jumma ( about 10 years old )

Gul Jumma helps her family by collecting discarded plastic, paper and cartons in the streets, to be used as fuel in her mud home in an internally displaced camp in Kabul. She is originally from Helmand province, where a war rages on between the U.S./NATO/Afghan Army coalition and local fighters, including the Taliban.

“I like wearing colorful dresses when I go to weddings or when my family and I are guests at the houses of our relatives and friends. My favorite fruit is the pomegranate.”

Gulsom ( about 13 years old )

Gulsom ( left ) with her friend, Fatima ( right )

“I used to sell candies to men who smoke the hookah. Once, I wore a multi-color skirt which I liked very much. In the drawing, the man smoking the hookah refused to buy candies from me, so I cried because I was sad.”

“I drew myself standing outside the shop where the people gather to smoke the hookah. I don’t like this work, and I don’t like the people who smoke the hookah.”

Fatima’s work on the street

Fatima’s wish to be a teacher

December 2014 Update on Street Kids Program

The street kids program has continued through 2014. Since August 2014, the classes for street kids have been held at the Borderfree Nonviolence Community Centre.

The Afghan Peace Volunteers who work as coordinators in the Street Kids Team are Zekerullah, Zarghuna, Farzana, Hadisa and Barath Khan. They have recently been joined by Bismillah and Sharif. These volunteers teach the street kids, arrange for their rice and oil distribution, and implement other programs to care for and nurture the street kids.

Once a week, the street children attend Dari and Math literacy classes as well lessons on nonviolence. Once a month, they receive a sack of rice and a bottle of cooking oil to supplement their family needs.

Plans are underway to hold the very first Street Kids Walk in Jan 2015. The Walk will give the kids a chance to describe their wish to study in school and to become doctors, engineers and teachers! The Street Kids Team will also lay out their hope o establish a school for 100 street kids in 2015. More on this ‘dream street kid school’ soon.

Meanwhile, enjoy the verses and photos below, and have a Happy 2015!

“We understand what you understand. These are our stories.”

Afghan Street Kids

Inam hopes to be enrolled in the Borderfree Street Kids School in 2015!

On the 20th of Jan, 2015, 80 Afghan street kids marched in Kabul to the doors of the Afghan Independent Human Right Commission, and asked for a school.

Let this be on record, that in a global economy based on force, in which, very soon, 1% of the world’s population will own as much as the rest of the world, in which children have little choice but to work, and in which children make up most of the civilian war casualties, these street kids were showing us all the way, the humble way of love.

Nothing romantic, but all patient, and beautiful!

They were not asking the Commission for a school. They were asking fellow human beings for a school, because they were asking for what all of us seem to be losing, the quiet human qualities to recognize what is valuable and to make peace with all: friendship, freedom and dignity.

Afghan street kids want a school

80 Afghan Street Kids walked in Kabul to ask for a school, led by Zekerullah, himself once a street kid

Zekerullah represents change, and would have done Gandhi, Badshah Khan and Martin Luther King proud

Zekerullah, a volunteer teacher-coordinator, shared,

“I was once selling chewing gum,

cigarettes, pens, nail clippers and batteries,

from a wooden frame hung on my neck,

chased away

by hotel owners,

up, down, up and down the bazaar.”

He looks at them confidently,

as their teacher of nonviolence,

himself having been beaten by his teachers,

“Never think that you can’t study,

Never let anyone tell you can only be a street kid.”

You are not born a slave,

“We’re also human beings!”

I first photographed Zekerullah selling his street wares,

so seeing him walk in front

of children all eager to have a school,

echoing “We want dignity!”,

I saw Martin Luther King.

I wanted to tell Zekerullah to dance like he loves to,

to spark movements of uncontainable freedom among the children,

but his gait was already reflecting the colourless sky blue

captured in their exuberant Borderfree scarves.

I wish you had seen his creativity, and forgiveness,

as he marched like an earthquake with little kings and queens,

peacefully protesting our globally violent economy,

turning the rainy morning

into the million wishes

of small people everywhere.

Fatima

Fatima walked like a seasoned activist

Fatima’s drawing on her previous work selling candies in the streets

Fatima in the Street Kids Program of the Afghan Peace Volunteers

Fatima wants to be a teacher

Zekerullah and I had spotted Fatima in a rabbit-eared pullover,

a stove mantel in her cold hands,

when we went to visit sick Mehdi,

having heard Ismael say, “He’s sleeping at home.

There’s no money to see the doctor.”

Fatima, a relative of Mehdi,

led us to his rented room,

“He’s just gone to the dispensary.”

I had cringed at the thought of customary drugs

poisoning Mehdi at a handsome pharmaceutical profit,

though today, Fatima, Mehdi, Ismael

and each street child walked like tall breadwinners.

“We don’t want charity!” she chorused after Zekerullah,

past unqualified pharmacies and inappropriate shopping complexes,

speaking to adult calculations

that leave kids wandering in the alleys

for a way to survive.

Fatima’s father was making the plastic spades of snow shovels,

hoping for the white rain to arrive

in desiccated Kabul.

“Fatima, go fetch some water!”

before a mining corporation siphons

the people’s minimal supply

to satiate the Aynak copper mine,

as noted by the colluding World Bank.

“We want to go to a good school…”

where learning is valued above metals and rare earth elements,

and where kids can be kids,

enquiring, curious, friendly

and revolutionary.

Fatima held the banner

‘We say ‘no’ to all forms of violence’

as if she was addressing all the stereotypes

heaped by governments on the poor,

on race, religion or some other human thought or trait,

breaking through the subterfuge,

saying with all her oppressed might,

‘”We want a school!”

The street kids were determined, and sincere

They were passionate

They were small, but hopeful and sure

They want a school

Update August 2016

Afghan friends: For a moment, I didn’t know what to wish for you

Mahdi drew what he wanted to become: a doctor – white coat, blue tie

In 2015, Mursal drew and wrote: I want a School of Nonviolence

Ibrahim ( extreme left ) said #Enough! War, along with other Afghan street kids

Mahdi and Mursal,

today, when I heard the blast of another suicide bombing in Kabul,

I didn’t know what to wish for you.

I was irritated, rather,

my thoughts scattered in multiple fragments,

because,

not only did I need to know that you were safe,

it hurt me to think of how the sensational images

will traumatize you, again.

Mahdi was back polishing boots last summer, together with his cousin, Ismael

With another street kid, Nisar, Mahdi volunteered to water trees at Kabul Peace Garden

He also helped out in the winter duvet project, distributing duvets to poor families.

Here, he is sitting on the duvets at the back of a truck, bringing the duvets to a poor residential area

Mahdi ( left ) was among many street kids who destroyed and buried toy weapons,

and who wrote on the palms of their hands, “#Bas! #Enough!”

Mahdi pulled me aside,

and I was hoping he had good news for me,

as the Street Kids School teachers and I had been encouraging the students

to enroll in Afghan government schools.

“I saw a horrible thing, Hakim.

A young gymnasium staff next to the canteen where I work

was found dead, hanged, murdered.

He was just a kid,

and his body looked horrible….”

Mahdi’s hoarse voice was jittery, and heavy.

“The canteen is shut down now,

and my dad is making arrangements

for some other full time work in town.”

School?

Mahdi looked away…,“I need to help my family.”

Recently, from not being able to pay the rent,

Mahdi’s family shifted to a cheaper room, with a less exacting landlord.

Mursal being interviewed after the Afghan Street Kids Protest Walk in Feb 2015. She and about 70 other street kids for a school for 100 street kids. After a government official had explained that the government had no plans or funds for such a school, the Afghan Peace Volunteers decided to fulfil Mursal’s dream by establishing the Borderfree Street Kids School, which enrolled 100 students in 2016.

Mursal served the Afghan Peace Volunteers tea after shifting some office equipment and furniture to new premises

Mursal ( centre ) has become quite a young organizer;

here, she had planned for and run a special program to thank the volunteer teachers of the Borderfree Street Kids School.

Mursal has learnt to ride a bicycle. Twice, she joined the Borderfree Cycling Club to ride in the streets of Kabul

Mursal approached me and Ali confidently,

and said that she had a proposal,

“I want to organize a street protest,

to demand that the authorities stop hitting the street vendors with their batons.”

How could they chase the labourers away

from their only source of livelihood?

Yes, a 14-year-old Afghan girl, and already ready to speak out,

despite a generally conservative Afghan society.

I can see her discovering her own passion and gamut of feelings;

I’ve seen her cry as if releasing the

dreams racing through her mind,

and I’ve heard her read earnestly prepared prose.

Once, in front of a video camera

held by another street kid, Deeba,

she spoke so assuredly.

They were in a room all by themselves where,

especially for a girl,

Mursal could enact another reality

without worrying about

adult reactions and plans.

Ibrahim ( left ) was initially a little shy in class

Gradually, he began to warm up to others and the teachers.

He also understood quickly, like all Afghan kids, the need to end war. On his palm was written “#Bas! #Enough!”

This was his profile picture for the school register. Behind him was a painting of a ship at sea (insert). Little did he know that he was to make a fatal crossing of the Aegean Sea, while he and his family tried to reach Greece in seeking asylum, fleeing the lack of work and security in Kabul.

Insecurity, exploding like this senseless massacre in Kabul,

stacks up with the lack of work and hope,

and drove Ibrahim, his family and about 146,000 Afghans from

their places of birth, traditions, tea and weddings,

to find shelter in Europe,

as the second largest group of asylum seekers after Syrians.

The ‘powers’ are tearing Syria apart,

in the same way they have successfully shredded Afghanistan.

You were too young, like many others,

but family meant: you fled as a family,

and after you no longer turned up at the Centre,

one day,

word came through your grandma in Kabul,

who was distraught and shaking like paper burnt to grey ash,

“crying without pause for days and nights,” she said.

“Dear Ibrahim, such a good boy, is gone,

gone, how is that possible?

Drowned.”

She sighed, wiping off the stream from under her eye bags.

“How am I supposed to stop this pain?”

Ibrahim’s grandma was broken. Lost.

Ibrahim, I knew what to wish for you,

but you never saw any sea before,

and the money-makers from these wars

would never visit your grave,

and certainly not without blaming you and your mother,

or, if you had survived, they would have considered you a nuisance,

a dispensable number.

My wish was: “I hope you have a school you can enjoy going to.”

but that’s impossible now,

and when another bomb went off this bloody afternoon,

killing at least 80,

in a sea-less land,

I was reminded that your family was willing to risk all,

to journey from possible death to possible death,

and I felt incredibly angry at what we are doing to fellow human beings,

to the children of the world.

Mahdi is given monthly food gifts of rice, oil and other staples. Here, he is standing next to a poster of the Food Bank, in which he is featured polishing boots in the streets of Kabul. The Food Bank is an initiative of the Afghan Peace Volunteers to enable Afghans to help Afghans, especially the most vulnerable.

Mahdi’s family were refugees in Iran who had returned to Afghanistan when Mahdi was three. In May 2016, Mahdi finally enrolled into the 7th grade at a Kabul government school ( background ). I was so proud of his determination, as I accompanied him to register at the school, and though he was frowning in this photo, he was feeling very excited, telling me, “I will work hard, Hakim. Thanks for coming with me.”

Mahdi and Mursal in class a year ago. If not change for the new Afghan generation, then for which generation?

34 Responses to Borderfree Afghan Street Kids School

I’ve just found your site. We, at A Year Without War, hope you were successful with your Candle light ceremony and your mailing campaign. A Year Without War would like to list you as a partner and have you list AYWW as a partner. We will pulicize and support your programs. AYWW is now in 83 countries and will be making a major push on our own programs during 2013. AYPV has the support of AYWW. Together we can tip history away from war.

Most people in “the West” use the word “God” readily and often. Your 2009 video about Najib, at the top here, showed me what the word seems to mean. May “the West’s” problem is trying to define “God”, but let me try. God is not a reason to destroy, to fear, to think anxiously, to pretend you do not see what you see. Okay, that’s what God is not. What is God? God is why you’re still here, even now, at this instant, still here, with all this, and you’re not ready to throw it all away, and if you are that ready, you know that you’ll find it again when you wake up. But please stay here and share it with the rest, them and me, before you go.